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Apple Moves Three Older Macs to Obsolete Products List
Apple has added the 2018 Retina MacBook Air, the 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports, and the 13-inch 2017 MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt 3 ports to its obsolete products list, ending standard hardware service for these models. The move follows Apple's policy of classifying products as obsolete seven years after they were last distributed for sale.
By Tertius News AI Desk2 distinct · 2 mastheads · 2 articlesVersion 1Coverage Published
Apple has added three Mac models to its obsolete products list: the 2018 Retina MacBook Air, the 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports, and the 13-inch 2017 MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt 3 ports. All three were previously classified as vintage, according to Business Today and MacRumors.
Under Apple's classification system, products are considered vintage five years after they were last distributed for sale and become obsolete after seven years. Vintage products can still receive repairs through Apple Stores and authorised service providers when parts are available, but obsolete products generally cannot receive standard hardware service because Apple no longer provides repair components.
There is an exception for battery-only repairs. Apple can provide battery-only repairs for Mac laptops for up to 10 years after a model was last distributed for sale, provided parts are available. As a result, battery replacement may still be possible for these MacBook models, as reported by both Business Today and MacRumors.
The 2018 MacBook Air was notable for introducing Touch ID and a Retina display to the Air lineup. It also featured smaller bezels and a thinner, lighter design compared with earlier models, which used lower-resolution non-Retina displays. According to MacRumors, 2018 was a redesign year for the MacBook Air, with Apple introducing these changes.
Apple's 2017 MacBook Pro used Intel's Kaby Lake processors, and it was a minor processor update with few other changes. The 2018 refresh added True Tone display support for the first time and a third-generation keyboard with butterfly keys, as reported by MacRumors.
How each outlet told it
A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.
Framing: Apple's obsolete classification ends standard hardware service for three older Macs, including the 2018 MacBook Air. — Informative, neutral
Facts Included:
Apple added the 2018 Retina MacBook Air, the 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports, and the 13-inch 2017 MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt 3 ports to its obsolete products list.
All three were previously classified as vintage.
Apple classifies products as vintage five years after they were last distributed for sale and obsolete after seven years.
Vintage products can still receive repairs through Apple Stores and authorised service providers when parts are available.
Obsolete products generally cannot receive standard hardware service because Apple no longer provides repair components.
Battery-only repairs may still be possible for these MacBook models for up to 10 years after a model was last distributed for sale, provided parts are available.
The 2018 MacBook Air was notable for introducing Touch ID and a Retina display to the Air lineup.
It also featured smaller bezels and a thinner, lighter design compared with earlier models, which used lower-resolution non-Retina displays.
Framing: Headline focuses on the addition of three Macs to the obsolete list, emphasizing the action and the category. — Informative and objective.
Facts Included:
Apple added three Macs to its obsolete products list
The three Macs are the 2018 Retina MacBook Air, the 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports, and the 13-inch 2017 MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt 3 ports
The three products were previously on the vintage list
Apple adds products to the vintage list after five years since last distribution for sale, and obsolete at seven years
Vintage products can still be repaired if parts are available
Obsolete devices are generally not eligible for repair, and Apple stops making repair components
Apple has a battery-only repair policy for Mac laptops for up to 10 years after last distribution for sale, so owners of the 2017/2018 MacBook Pro and 2018 MacBook Air may still get battery replacements
The 2018 MacBook Air was the first in the Air line with Touch ID and a Retina display
Prior MacBook Air models had a non-Retina display with lower resolution and less vibrant colors
2018 was a redesign year for the MacBook Air, with Apple introducing smaller bezels and a thinner, lighter chassis
Apple's 2017 MacBook Pro used Intel's Kaby Lake processors, and it was a minor processor update with few other changes
The 2018 refresh added True Tone display support for the first time and a third-generation keyboard with butterfly keys
AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status is Contested when two claims on this page negate each other; otherwise it counts the distinct outlets we found asserting that specific claim — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimApple added the 2018 Retina MacBook Air, the 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports, and the 13-inch 2017 MacBook Pro with two Thunderbolt 3 ports to its obsolete products list.
ClaimApple can provide battery-only repairs for Mac laptops for up to 10 years after a model was last distributed for sale, provided parts are available.
ClaimThe 2018 MacBook Air featured smaller bezels and a thinner, lighter design than earlier MacBook Air models, which used lower-resolution non-Retina displays.
ClaimApple's battery-only repair policy applies to Mac laptops for up to 10 years after a model was last distributed for sale, so battery replacement may still be possible for the 2017/2018 MacBook Pro and 2018 MacBook Air models, provided parts are available.